Another Viewpoint: Republicans bring knives to a gun fight

Another Viewpoint is a column The News-Herald makes available so all sides of issues may by aired. Brian Burke lives in Eastlake.

The Democratic Party learned to create votes as fast as their policies create poor people. It also understands the boundless imperial power that has accrued to the American presidency. Misunderstanding of these truths could leave the other political party outside the White House for a long time to come.

Have Americans regressed so much that they may never again embrace foundational American principles: limited government, free markets, federalism, and laws built on transcendental morality? The post-election party line seems to be "yes."

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I don't buy it. The American people are not that far gone. But the Democratic Party is. All indicators pre-election were that Obama was cooked. He had done too much damage. He had increased the national debt $6 trillion with nothing to show for it, a 60 percent increase over what 43 prior presidents took 220 years to accumulate. Obama's spending made the profligate George W. Bush look Amish frugal. The uninterrupted unemployment rate for Obama's first term was above 8 percent; above 9 percent for 25 months. The economy recessed for so long it was regularly referenced on primetime television and in movies.

The much-maligned eight years of President Bush saw an average unemployment rate of about 5 percent reaching 7.8 percent for only the month Bush left office. And that was an indirect result of the Clinton Administration's enforcement of Carter's 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, a junk mortgage program coming home to roost. Even considering the post-9/11 effects, "Bush's economy" never significantly recessed, if measured in unemployment rate, and recovered to sub-6 percent levels in two years. Obama's economy never recovered.

The Democratic Party has effectively embraced European Democratic Socialism. They are all socialists now. Socialism, a materialist philosophy, rejects concepts of transcendent morality, authority and truth.

Republicans underestimate the lengths their opponents will go to institute their earthbound utopian vision. Utopians do whatever is necessary to achieve their ends. The early socialists developed the Big Lie technique to manipulate the masses. Few people, they said (and they were right), will believe anyone could tell such whoppers and expect to get away with it.

The American people, including well-meaning Democrats, are not so far gone that they are willing to forever trade their personal and economic liberty for a bowl of federal stew. But the Democratic Party and the Chicago political machine writ large in Washington are a different matter. The 2012 election was the Big Lie technique, in deeds rather than words, exhibited in various swing states.

Contrary to postmortem criticism, Republicans put forth a formidable candidate who evolved into an increasingly effective candidate from the primaries into the general election. Like Reagan with Carter, Romney's election would have stopped a 21st century Jimmy Carter redux sans charm. Romney's momentum going into Nov. 6, then loss of eight of nine swing states, is not well explained by, "We overestimated the electorate."

It is now clear that in Florida's St. Lucie County, Republican Congressman Allen West lost where election board shenanigans or "mistakes" took his 2000 vote lead at 1 a.m. and turned it into a 2000 vote deficit within 35 minutes. But recounts alone mean nothing if votes are illegitimate: non-citizens, dead or fictional people, repeat voting. St. Lucie is a microcosm of many counties throughout the nine swing states. The Democratic Party shapes its existence on income redistribution -- "spreading the wealth around." The bridge to vote redistribution is not a bridge too far.

As Republicans unsheathed their knives in the fight for the swing states someone should have told them they were going to a gun fight. Rep. Allen West now understands this. If I'm wrong and the American people do want European socialism in America even after being again reminded these last four years of its debilitating effects, then the problem is much different and the political road to perdition now slopes down and widens.